30 Year Old Beer

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blisterman

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I managed to come across a bottle of Young's Ale from 1977. It doesn't say on the bottle whether or not it's bottle conditioned. It looks fine. The only thing that i'd be wary of, other than its age, is that there is a small bit of rust on the top of the bottle cap, but I don't think any of the beer is in contact with it.

I am considering giving it a taste. Is there any danger in drinking beer this old? If it tastes horrible I'd just spit it out, but I'm worried it'd taste fine, but make me horribly sick. Anyone ever tried a beer this old?
 
I managed to come across a bottle of Young's Ale from 1977. It doesn't say on the bottle whether or not it's bottle conditioned. It looks fine. The only thing that i'd be wary of, other than its age, is that there is a small bit of rust on the top of the bottle cap, but I don't think any of the beer is in contact with it.

I am considering giving it a taste. Is there any danger in drinking beer this old? If it tastes horrible I'd just spit it out, but I'm worried it'd taste fine, but make me horribly sick. Anyone ever tried a beer this old?

On Monday I tried some Carling Black Label from 1984. Was still carbonated, but had a distinct "wet cardboard" taste, due to oxidation.

Try it out, no worries about getting sick. Unless you drink too much beer, then it's your fault! :) I guarantee that you won't get past the first bottle.

MIke
 
I managed to come across a bottle of Young's Ale from 1977. It doesn't say on the bottle whether or not it's bottle conditioned. It looks fine. The only thing that i'd be wary of, other than its age, is that there is a small bit of rust on the top of the bottle cap, but I don't think any of the beer is in contact with it.

I am considering giving it a taste. Is there any danger in drinking beer this old? If it tastes horrible I'd just spit it out, but I'm worried it'd taste fine, but make me horribly sick. Anyone ever tried a beer this old?

What I would do is sell it on Ebay and then buy yourself a whole case of Young's :D.

It shouldn't 'hurt' you, although it may not be kind to your digestive system. But that's just a guess. It probably holds more value as a collectible.
 
At a homebrew meeting last week, one guy brought a 32 year old Hawaiian beer in a stainless can. We all tried a little bit, and none of us are dead yet. It had no hops at all and tasted mostly like stainless steel with a hint of malt. Yummy
 
We found a can of Budweiser from 1998 in my buddies house when I was visiting home for a week in the summer. The funniest part is that it was in the fridge his dad had stocked for us to drink from. We weren't brave enough to try it.
 
I got this from anoter site while discussing Ballantine beers. This is what someone had to say about some even older beers

Quote
"I recently tasted the first of several 1963 to 1966 bottlings available to me and was quite taken aback by the quality of it. Even that batch would have certainly peaked within a few years of bottling (it was bottled in 1966 but brewed in 1946); the sample I had was still certainly something more than "beer"...it still had loads of hop aroma thanks to the brewery's well documented and generous use of its house distilled hop oil. Additionally it had a notably distinct contribution from 20 years of aging in wood (a characteristic shared to a lesser degree by the brewery's legendary and incredible 1 year aged in wood IPA). Also this sample not so surprisingly had subtle yet quite surprisingly _not_ overwhelming sherry notes.

What amazes me about the Burton is the fact that it is still drinkable at all after all these years...but it is, partly because of its generous alcohol content and high hop level...and especially if you're lucky enough to find a well stored bottle. An amazing, world class, one of a kind brew yet to be even remotely duplicated...and made by a mega brewing company predating the so called craft brew movement by many, many years! And it is quite a testament to the skills of this famous brewery. To my mind, no brewery big or small has since even remotely approached the quality that Ballantine turned out."
 
In terms of my own hand bottled home brew, how long should I expect it to keep? Would it be ridiculous to save a bottle of my first batch for a grandson? I would imagine storage, quality and recipe have a tremendous amount to do with this. But on average, a bottled ale goes bad after how long?
 
It was time to check the basement at my grand parents house and I made a find; 3 handles of 1958 Wild Turkey 8 half pints Old Grandad 2 Gift boxes of Canadian Masterpiece 1953 and a 6 pack of mixed labelled beer! :rockin:

So I look and the caps don't match the bottles!

Age undetermined
Stored in dark cool place for most of the duration
The clear corona bottle looks fairly murky
My grandma was a closet witch

Do I open and share or leave it and stare??
 
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